Opinion page editor Rick Holmes and other writers blog about national politics and issues. Holmes & Co. is a Blog for Independent Minds, a place for a free-flowing discussion of policy, news and opinion. This blog is the online cousin of the Opinion
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Opinion page editor Rick Holmes and other writers blog about national politics and issues. Holmes & Co. is a Blog for Independent Minds, a place for a free-flowing discussion of policy, news and opinion. This blog is the online cousin of the Opinion section of the MetroWest Daily News in Framingham, Mass. As such, our focus starts there and spreads to include Massachusetts, the nation and the world. Since successful blogs create communities of readers and writers, we hope the \x34& Co.\x34 will also come to include you.

1. Don’t believe the spin about Steve Grossman being the big winner because he got more delegate votes.† Nobody cares about the endorsement of the convention.† The big winner is DON BERWICK, the only one of the governor candidates who exceeded expectations.† He gets to be the fresh face in the primary race, and the sole alternative to the insiders.

It may prove to be the best day of the Berwick campaign.† He’ll now face scrutiny for the first time, and not just by Democratic activists.† Voices from the Right are decrying the totally expected defeat of Joe Avellone, along with Berwick’s surge, prove the extremists are running the Democratic Party.† On WCVB’s “On The Record” Sunday, Republican Ginny Buckingham dropped what may the first “loony left” reference of the campaign. It won’t be long before we hear him described as the father of the Obamacare rollout.

2. MAURA HEALEY, in her first political campaign, came within a hair of beating Warren Tolman for the Attorney General convention bragging rights.† Tolman is experienced (he’s run statewide before) and he’s plugged in (brother Steven runs the AFL-CIO). But Healey’s another attractive outsider, backed by the progressive establishment – and they often are stronger in the primary than at the convention. It promises to be an interesting campaign.

3. TOM CONROY. Pre-conventional wisdom had the treasurer candidate from Wayland on the bubble.† His opponents, Sen. Barry Finegold and Brookline activist Deb Goldberg, had stronger geographical bases, but Conroy made the most of endorsements from the state reps who know him best.† Goldberg ended up with 38 percent, Conroy with 34 percent and Finegold with 27 percent.† That makes it an even battle. Whether the candidates can make it interesting remains to be seen.

4. By the measure of beating expectations, LELAND CHEUNG came up big in the lieutenant governor’s race. A lot of people thought he’d come up short of the 15 percent required for a spot on the primary ballot, but the Cambridge city councilor beat that mark by 1.2 points.† But I heard more talk about Mike Lake’s fiery speech. Rounding out the trio is Steve Kerrigan, a former aide to Ted Kennedy.

Unlike Republicans, Democratic candidates for governor and lt. gov. don’t team up before the convention and primaries, which makes for a strange campaign, with candidates making promises about what they would do with an office that has no powers, helping out a governor they can’t identify.† Perhaps as a result, the office seems to attract lesser lights, and Democratic governors often don’t get along with the lieutenants.† I found myself thinking how interesting it would have been if Grossman had taken a page out of Bill Weld’s book and agreed to run as a ticket with Juliette Kayyem as lieutenant governor.

That didn’t happen, so it’s up to voters to figure out what they are looking for in an office many people are now questioning: What do we need a lieutenant governor for, anyway?